obama, which he is. host: pat, who is the whole group? caller: a group of progressives who wanted into the white house and they wanted to be in it, regardless of whether they could get elected or not, but president obama seemed like a good candidate to be their mouthpiece. that is kind of what he is acting like. fireds why no one can get because they are in charge and he is not. that occurred to me as a possibility. can we talk about the cabinet secretaries and the power and influence that they have? guest: there is a long-term trend of centralization, including the extreme if ecology we have in confirming for any job. there are 200 senior administration officials right now who are waiting for confirmation from the senate that they have not yet approved. think about this, the chief of staff of the white house does not need to be confirmed, he serves at the pleasure of the president, so there are many even structural reasons as opposed to just the president's personal preference for why power resides in t